Collins’ father, Doug, coaches the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and played for the team from 1973-81. Chris was born in 1974, and Thursday he recalled the rather accomplished basketball children to arise from that Sixers squad.

Harvey Catchings’ daughter, Tamika, was an All-American at Tennessee and the WNBA’s 2011 MVP.

Joe Bryant’s son, Kobe, is, well, you know.

Add Collins, a former Duke guard to the mix, and you have a darn fine starting five.

Our parent paper, the Chicago Tribune, reports that Collins is a leading candidate to replace the fired Bill Carmody at Northwestern, a Big Ten program that has never reached the NCAA tournament. A Duke assistant under Mike Krzyzewski since 2001, Collins played high school basketball near Northwestern in suburban Chicago.

Krzyzewski said Thursday that Collins’ experience at Duke and with the 2008 and ’12 Olympic teams that Krzyzewski coached make him an ideal candidate. Krzyzewski also said that Doug Collins “is as smart a guy about basketball as there is on this planet.”

Other nuggets from the four Friday games here:

* Albany hails from the America East Conference, whose champion has lost its opening NCAA tournament game 14 of the last 15 years. The exception was 2005, when 13th-seeded Vermont defeated fourth-seeded Syracuse.

“During the recruiting process, I knew we were getting a player that was extremely versatile, that I thought would be able to have success in a lot of different areas on the basketball court,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said of Porter. “Quickly when practice started, that summer we were getting ready to go to China, it's like, ooh, he's got a chance to be pretty good, really good. He's continued to progress, he's gotten better. …

“He's a person that can control a game in many different facets, and I think the layman has a tendency to look at the stat sheet and start talking about points. Otto, a lot of his national attention started when he scored 33 points against Syracuse, and everything else he's been doing, he's been doing for two years. He just hasn't gotten the attention for it. But he's someone -- he's a special, special player.”

McDermott’s dad, Greg, is Creighton’s head coach.

“He always had a great feel for the game,” father said of son. “He had the ability in high school to be in the right place at the right time. I think we as coaches college wondered, how would that ability transfer to the next level? And as you watch him play in college you say, ‘God, that kid is always in the right place at the right time.’ Now there are NBA general managers who are trying to figure out, how does that transfer from college to the NBA?

“And to Doug's credit, he's just worked really hard to get better. He's added something to his game every year, and to go from someone that was a sixth man on your high school team as a junior and be a two¿time all¿American five years later, that just doesn't happen. A lot of the credit goes to Doug.”

I can be reached at 247-4636 or by e-mail at dteel@dailypress.com. Follow me at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP